Scents
by Crickets
Summary: Sakura wishes she could hide from reality of it all.


Thanks everyone for the reviews!

I'mprocrastinating (productively)instead of studying for math midterm and one of the end results (the only useful one) was this.

Pairing: Sasuke/Naruto and unrequited Sakura/Sasuke

Hope you guys enjoy it.

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Scents

It's uncomfortable where she is. One of the thorny bushes has made its way to the inside of her legs and is now scratching away a particular patch of skin on her inner right thigh. She wants to move; she really does. But she's afraid that Sasuke will hear her or Naruto will catch her smell on the air and then she would have lost again and she can't let that happen.

Sakura wishes that she had had better sense when Kakashi had explained the mission. Hide from your team mates and find the others. One, two, three, four. Run. Now. Hide. Five, six, seven. He had looked at her with his one eye and told her that the first to lose would have to do a D-rank mission. She had nodded in understanding and fought the urge to tell him that she was no longer twelve and just past puberty, that at sixteen years of age, she has better wisdom.

She doesn't do any of that though and manages to find a tree upwind and hidden from view before Kakashi finishes counting nine out. There had been a nest on the branch next to hers and she had been afraid that they would stop singing and so she had fled. Breathing shallow, trying to stay upwind, she had ended up landing with a splash in the water.

The water was good, cool, and refreshing and had brought Naruto out for less than a second. He had stared hard at the exact spot she was submerged, shaken his head, and fled again. She had lost, and he was not going to gloat about it. That thought hurt more than it should because it meant that Naruto no longer had a crush on her, that he had moved past her, and that she was no longer as important.

She had told herself that she was wiser, and took the opportunity he had given her. Now she was stuck in a bramble bush, thick, green, and thorny. Upwind was better than underwater and she wondered if summoning one of her snails would be cheating.

The wind changes again and she catches smell of Sasuke. Clean and bitter all at once. She snags her hair close and hopes that the wind stays that way. She is not prepared to notice a faint tang of Naruto on the air as well. Coming for the same direction, nonetheless. It puzzles her and she debates the merits of abandoning stealth to investigate how Naruto is concealing his scent.

She's crawling on her belly and has almost reached the source of the puzzling smell when Kakashi appears above her. He is hanging upside down, his hair falling wildly and obscuring his one visible eye. He frowns in displeasure and asks her, normal voice and all, if she really cares for the answers. When she whispers an affirmative, it comes out too loud and jars the stillness around her.

She follows his finger, the right index crooked and the healer part of her notes that it was broken, twice, and set badly the first time itself. She is curious and makes a snapping motion with her hands, all the while eyeing his finger. He shrugs embarrassedly, and she lets it go. Not that she has much choice.

They are in the tree she first was in, two branches below the bird's nest, perilously close to the ground and out in the open. The wind has changed direction again and she can see Naruto's trademark orange jacket. His pants are army green and blend in better. She sniffs the air and the action reminds her of Kakashi's dog.

She can smell Naruto. Strong and earthy. Underneath it all, there is bitterness and she thinks of Sasuke, his eyes angry and his face blank. She wants to know what is happening, she really does. But, she doesn't think that she is quite ready for the truth. Not yet.

Later that day, she wishes that she had given into the impulse to close her eyes against reality. Because then she would have been able to block out Sasuke pouncing Naruto and nuzzling him affectionately.

By the time dinner comes along, she has come to terms with why Naruto no longer needs her and wishes she had paid him more attention when she had had the chance. She also wishes that she had not heard Naruto's breathless confession that he had already spotted Sakura, and that Sasuke didn't win. No way, was he going to admit that. She wishes that she had become deaf in the wars because _Sasuke_ had laughed then. Low and rich and dark. With none of the bitterness that is present in his scent.


End file.
